Tribunal denies RCMP request to call witness in Vancouver Olympics CEO case

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has denied an RCMP witness summons request over an inquiry into the RCMP’s handling of physical and sexual abuse allegations by Indigenous day school survivors against former Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong.

According to a Jan. 29 decision by Colleen Harrington, the RCMP had requested to summon Norman Sabourin, the former Executive Director and General Counsel for the Canadian Judicial Council.

“I do not agree that this decision is unfair to the RCMP, or that it is being denied the ability to make a full answer and defense to the complaint, or that it will experience any prejudice by not receiving the summons,” wrote Harrington.

The RCMP also requested a Jan. 29, 2016 decision letter authored by Sabourin written in response to a complaint letter sent by the survivors against Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge be entered as part of the hearing in lieu of Sabourin’s appearance.

That letter had already been disclosed by RCMP earlier in proceedings, explained Harrington.

“It was the RCMP that disclosed the letter as part of its document disclosure obligations very early in the Tribunal’s proceedings and the RCMP listed the decision letter as one of its proposed exhibits in this hearing,” wrote Harrington.

However, the RCMP did not have a copy of the Jan. 7, 2016 complaint letter authored by the survivors and sent to the Canadian Judicial Council.

Harrington noted the RCMP now has the information from the letter they were requesting, as the survivors’ counsel provided a link to a Jan. 22, 2016 media report which included a copy of their Jan. 7, 2016 complaint letter to the Canadian Judicial Council in response to the RCMP summons request.

“If the RCMP had simply asked for a copy of the complaint letter from the complainants much earlier in the process, everyone’s time and resources could have been preserved,” Harrington noted.

The tribunal decision also notes the RCMP contended that the survivors “effectively amended” their Statement of Particulars (SOP) on Dec. 18, 2023 by asking for a re-investigation. Harrington disagreed with the RCMP’s contention.

“I am not convinced by the suggestion that the RCMP was unaware that the complainants were seeking a re-investigation prior to December 18, 2023,” wrote Harrington.

The complainants argued that a re-investigation was always their intention and referred the tribunal to their June 2020 SOP.

“The complainants seek an order for the provision of the investigatory services that they were denied because of the RCMP’s discriminatory practices,” states a section of the 2020 SOP included in the Tribunal’s decision.

Furlong’s alleged crimes were first publicized by journalist Laura Robinson when she wrote a September 2012 article in The Georgia Strait based on statements collected from survivors of Immaculata Elementary School in Burns Lake.

Furlong launched a defamation suit against Robinson in 2015, following several public statements in response, and said that a “shocking lack of diligence” had been done in researching the article, and that Robinson “has a two decade-long pattern of inaccuracy in her writing”.

Robinson alleged Furlong’s responses were made in malice about her reporting, but the claim was dismissed by Justice Wedge in her 2015 ruling, noting Furlong’s statements were genuine, and not motivated by malice, but simply in response to the serious accusations.

“Mr. Furlong’s responses did not exceed the privileged occasions on which they were made, nor were they actuated by malice,” wrote Wedge.

Furlong has never been charged in connection with any of the allegations.

Tom Summer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alaska Highway News